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Die Hard 4 movie review

July 2, 2007

I haven’t seen any fourth of a series flick which is this entertaining, except for Star Wars. No no, I am not comparing this film to Star Wars, that would be sacrilege! All I am saying is that ‘Live Free or Die Hard’ is good even though it was fourth in line. There was a story, and the movie was technically superior…pretty slick in fact. Its quite impossible to fidget in your seat… unless you are one of those who abhors violent movies. Len Wiseman has done a great job in cobbling together amazing action without too much blood and gore…

The story is about John Mclane (Bruce Willis), a senior detective out to bust a cyber terrorist organisation headed by Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant). Mclane stumbles on to a teenager whom the terrorists want to get rid off (for complicity in their cyber crime) and from then on an unlikely partnership is born. Between a die hard cop and a computer geek called Matt Farrell (Justin Long). Brain and brawn combined go on to make a super team whose main aim is to stop the United States falling prey to cyber terrorists.

They go at it against all odds…forced to deal with a maniac called Gabriel and his arsenal of goons, bombs and missles. And as for the action, there’s everything, from car chases and gun fights to a hair raising scene in a car dangling in a lift shaft. And in one scene Mclane actually hurls his car at a helicopter! Why, in the climax of the movie Mclane even dodges a fighter jet…this does seem far-fetched. But the execution of the scene cannot be faulted. In fact, that particular scene on the freeway is a real treat to watch.

Suspension from disbelief works in this movie, partly due to the fast pace and the plausible acting, yeah, even from Bruce Willis. Ofcourse, most of the time all the acting that Willis has to do consisted of frowning, grimacing and looking cool…and we know that he’s good at that sort of thing. His unlikely sidekick Justin Long looked very authentic as a computer geek.

As for the performances of the bad guys, Timothy Olyphant who plays Gabriel and Mai Lihn his sidekick Maggie Q were very good, and made the movie worth watching. The only other woman in the film besides Lihn was Mary Elizabeth Winstead who plays Lucy, Mclane’s daughter. She doesn’t have much of a role.

The only thing that didn’t jell was the incredible stupidity of the FBI honcho Bowman (Cliff Curtis )…I mean Mclane hands over to him the guilty computer hacker (Farrel) literally on a plate, but Bowman isn’t listening. Any idiot heading the investigation into the rapidly crashing cyber systems which are the country’s life blood would want to question the hacker who is being hunted down by some unknown killers. Specially when as many as seven hackers have already been murdered in the last 8 hours! But gaping at the disastrous situation around him much in the manner of a bystander is all that Bowman seems capable of. It’s almost as if the director manipulated Bowman’s character to show the viewer the damage the terrorists were doing…

Mclane on the other hand realises what the FBI honcho doesn’t. He chats up the kid Farrel and with hardly any prodding the kid leads him to the evil guys.

To sum it up, Die Hard 4 is not just another action movie. There is something fresh about it. If you are Die Hard fan, this is not a movie to miss.

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